Rand Paul faces possible Libertarian challenge, staff shake-up

A week after a come-from-behind victory over the GOP's establishment candidate in a Kentucky Senate primary, Rand Paul is facing a possible challenge by the
Libertarian Party and is shaking up his staff after comments he made about racial segregation caused a firestorm.

The Libertarian Party says it might run a candidate against Rand Paul because his stands have put them in a bad light. Paul is the son of Rep. Ron Paul, a Libertarian presidential candidate.

Paul suggested in an interview last week that he would have worked to modify the provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits racial discrimination by private businesses.

(AP) - A week after a come-from-behind victory over the GOP's establishment candidate in a Kentucky Senate primary, Rand Paul is facing a possible challenge by the

Libertarian Party and is shaking up his staff after comments he made about racial segregation caused a firestorm.

Despite his pedigree as the son of former Libertarian presidential candidate Ron Paul, Libertarian Vice Chairman Joshua Koch said Rand Paul has betrayed the party's values with stands he's taken, and they were considering finding a candidate to run for the seat.

It was a startling development that could play a role in shaping the outcome of the race in November by siphoning votes from Paul to the benefit of his Democratic opponent, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway.

Kentucky Libertarian Party Chairman Ken Moellman said in a later e-mail that Koch was not speaking for the party, although Moellman didn't rule out the possibility that a Libertarian would enter the race.

The news came on the same day that Paul named Jesse Benton, one of his father's former aides, as his campaign manager.

The shake-up was announced a week after a round of interviews in which Paul dismayed fellow Republicans with his views on racial segregation. Paul suggested to MSNBC host Rachel Maddow last week that the federal government shouldn't have the power to force restaurants to serve minorities if business owners don't want to.

Despite the timing, Benton said the staffing changes have nothing to do with the postelection political firestorm. Benton replaces David Adams, who was made campaign chairman.

"Our team is remaining intact," said Benton. "We've clarified some roles and will be adding even more talent to what is going to prove an extremely formidable operation."

Rand Paul's father was the Libertarian presidential candidate in 1988. He is currently a Republican member of Congress from Texas.

Once an ally, Koch had strong criticism for Paul, who won the Republican Senate nomination last week by trouncing the GOP establishment candidate, Secretary of State Trey Grayson.

"He had gone from being an outsider candidate to a tea party candidate to an establishment candidate in the past nine months," Koch said. "It's a complete identity crisis. I've never seen anything like it."

Insisting Paul is no Libertarian, Koch called Paul and his

Democratic opponent, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, "faces of the same bad coin."

The Libertarian Party doesn't have a strong presence in

Kentucky. But the race is being closely watched as Democrats seek to reclaim a seat that is being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Jim Bunning, a 78-year-old former major league pitcher who opted not to seek a third term.

University of Louisville political scientist Laurie Rhodebeck said if the Senate race were to be close, a Libertarian candidate could potentially take enough votes from Paul to affect the outcome.

"A lot of the Libertarian candidates are people with little or

no political experience," she said. "They don't speak well in public. They're underfunded. But it would make a point."

Who the Libertarian Party might put up to run in the race was unclear on Wednesday. The filing deadline is Aug. 10.

The Paul campaign said it wasn't concerned about the development. "If someone wants to split up Kentucky's non-conservative vote more than it already is, that's OK with me," Adams said.

Conway had no immediate comment.

Koch said Paul's views on a variety of subjects differ from the Libertarian Party, including his promised support for any measures to ban abortion and his opposition to same-sex marriage.

"Trying to impose a national standard for that would throw the whole system out of balance, and that's definitely not

Libertarian," Koch said.

Koch also said Paul is out of step with Libertarians in his unwillingness to call for U.S. troops to leave Iraq and

Afghanistan.

"The reason why we would even consider running somebody in this race is because we're not going to let Rand determine what a Libertarian stands for," he said. "I'm here to say Rand does not have the Libertarian ideology."

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WHAS11’sPolitical Reporter Joe Arnold interviewed Rand Paul after last week’s political firestorm. Since that time Paul has not granted any other interviews. His campaign said Paul was “taking a vacation” from the media to focus on his ophthalmology practice in Bowling Green.

Joe Arnold asked Paul to describe America if that provision was not included in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Dr. Rand Paul today announced some key additions to his campaign team.

David Adams, formerly Campaign Manager, will assume the title of Campaign Chairman. He will assume a larger role as top liaison for the candidate and will remain a senior strategist and ambassador for Rand Paul for Senate.

Jesse Benton, who has been the campaign's lead consultant from the beginning, will assume the title of Campaign Manager, and will take over many of the day-to-day mechanics while continuing to focus on strategy and messaging.

Spencer Bell, a volunteer for the campaign in the primary, has been named Deputy Campaign Manager.

The rest of the team remains largely intact, including the Strategy Group for Media as media consultant and CanDoPolitics.com as online advisor. This is essentially the same team, with slightly varied roles, that won the GOP primary by 24 points and was widely recognized for its effectiveness.

There will be further announcements in the coming weeks as new members are added to the team.

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